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Dick Rosenberg, who led San Francisco-based BankAmerica from 1990 to 1996, says he had a handshake agreement in 1995 with NationsBank CEO Hugh McColl that would have likely taken the combined bank's headquarters to Chicago.

Before San Francisco-based BankAmerica cut a deal to merge with Charlotte-based NationsBank in 1998, the top leaders of the two banks had reached a handshake agreement in 1995 that would have taken the combined bank's headquarters to Chicago.

Word of that earlier deal captured headlines in San Francisco, where many residents were in disbelief that their city could lose the economic clout and prestige that came with Bank of America's headquarters. But in a recent interview, former Bank of America Chairman and CEO Dick Rosenberg said the 1995 deal came closer to reality than many had realized at the time.

The interview with the San Francisco Business Times was in conjunction with Rosenberg, a retired commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, being recognized this week for lifetime achievement in the newspaper's annual Outstanding Directors Awards program. In the interview, Rosenberg stopped just short of saying he was in favor of taking BofA's headquarters to Chicago in 1995, but he had plenty of praise for the Windy City.

"Chicago would have been a logical place if you were really going to be America's bank," Rosenberg said in his office at Bank of America's former headquarters in San Francisco. "Chicago's the center of the United States, and it's a very friendly business community."

The 1995 agreement between Rosenberg and NationsBank CEO Hugh McColl, a former Marine, followed a period of healing for America's banks.

"We had a deal. We had a handshake. The only issue was where the headquarters would be located," Rosenberg recalled, still somewhat surprised at how quickly the luncheon agreement withered once McColl returned home.

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